The present applicant proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 9-91301 a document information management system and a document information management method each enabling direct access to a digital world by realizing continuity and correlation between a digital world such as a computer and a paper document to incorporate a paper document into a document information management system in the digital world and also by using a paper document as a medium and further each for realizing a hypertext (paper hypertext) using a paper document.
Namely, this document information management system comprises a file unit with information relating to particular words, texts, symbols, and graphic previously stored as a related information file; a medium form with at least one described information consisting of any of a word, a text, a symbol, and graphics, linking information for linking described information to a related information file in the file unit, and selection information for selecting particular described information from the described information recorded therein; a reading unit for reading the selection information and linking information from a medium form; a retrieving unit for retrieving a corresponding related information file from the file unit according to the selection information and the linking information read by the reading unit; and an output unit for outputting the related information file retrieved by the retrieving unit, and in the document information management system, selection information and linking information are read with the reading unit from the medium form, a corresponding related information file is retrieved from a related information file stored in the file unit according to the read selection information and linking information, and the retrieved related information file is outputted to recording paper or to an output unit such as a display screen.
In other words, in this document information management system, related information (related information file) stored in a file unit is retrieved from described information recorded at an arbitrary position on a medium form and the retrieved information can be outputted.
In recent years, however, personal computers have been used in an extremely wide range, because the operating method is very simple and easy because of its object-oriented GUI (Graphic User Interface). The GUI was realized by introducing paper, a pencil, and their handling manner in the actual world into a virtual world on a display unit as metaphor. With this feature, everybody can easily manipulate a computer without preparing a program.
With the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 9-91301, however, a related information file can be retrieved and outputted by selecting one or a plurality of described information using selection information from described information recorded on a medium form, and with this feature, direct access to the digital world can be executed by using a paper document as a medium, but to access from a paper document to the digital world, it is necessary to use a paper hypertext (a medium form) with a linkage (linking information) previously prepared, and for this reason there are restrictions such as impossibility of direct access from a paper document not having been converted to a hypertext yet to the digital world or impossibility of access to the digital world using a word other than a button (described information) even in case of paper hypertext document.
Also in the conventional technology, with introduction of GUI enabling paper, a pencil, and their handling manner in the actual world into the virtual world as metaphor, operability of computers has substantially been enhanced, but there has not been a computer operating system in which a computer is directly controlled by using paper and a pencil in the actual world as a manner for controlling a computer.
Also in the conventional technology, to operate a button on a hypertext, when a button on the hypertext is specified, operation is immediately started and related information at a destination for linkage is taken out, but a plurality of related information can not be taken out in batch by specifying a plurality of buttons, and the operability and convenience are disadvantageously poor. In other words, such operations as taking out related information in batch by specifying a plurality of buttons can not be executed, and use of a hypertext has been limited to operations executable through a simple operating sequence.